Three Sticks — Personal Development for Christians

My ministry has been a long time in coming. I have only recently begun to understand what it truly means for me and my life. I believe that as I move forward more of it will come into focus. Much of what I have learned in the last 6 months about myself and my upbringing both the good and the bad has helped me come to discover my ministry. I’ll explain what I mean when I say ministry. I simply mean the purpose that I am to accomplish with my life. I believe that we all have a unique predetermined purpose. I also believe that one’s purpose is designed to serve a larger good. So by proclaiming that my ministry is my purpose in life I acknowledge that we all have a ministry.

If you question my definition of ministry check Merriam-Webster Online at www.webster.com defines ministry as:

• a person or thing through which something is accomplished;

and purpose as:

• something set up as an object or end to be attained.

I am sure it is obvious I am a Christian and as such I naturally speak about these concepts using terms like free will, God’s will and God’s purpose for my life. For others this may not resonate and they may think about this using a subjective consciousness framework espoused by authors like Steve Pavlina – www.stevepavlina.com. The truth is there are lots of ways to think about and understand these concepts. I believe that how you think about these concepts is not as important as actually thinking about them and apply them to your life.

For a long time I have been struggling with understanding my purpose. A large part of my struggle stemmed from my lack of a comprehensive way to think about God and my relationship to God. For those thinking in terms of subjective consciousness substitute universal consciousness for God. It’s the classic free will vs. God’s will problem. I stumbled mightily over questions like the following;

• If I chose something that I want that is different from what God wants am I wrong because God cannot be wrong?
• If God can’t possibly be wrong what is the point in me choosing a path?

These type of questions haunted me as I sat through services at my church and struggled to understand the message being given. I turned to a number of sources including the bible, friends who were further along in life and their walk with Christ, Steve Pavlina’s blog and numerous books like Life Your Best Life Now and Purpose Driven Life. Many of these sources gave the same message it’s just that I was unable to process it. I don’t think I understood enough about myself at the time and I know that I had not taken enough time to reflect on where I was with my life. It was only after I started taking the time to truly comprehend my current situation, how I got to that point and what I would like my life to be like going forward that the pieces began to make sense and come together. One of the most important insights I received in my desperate intellectual wanderings came from Steve Pavlina’s article – How to discover your life purpose in about 20 minutes. In this article Steve provides a simple 4 step process for finding your purpose and when you do you’ll know it because you’ll cry. It’s really very simple. He found his. I found mine. I’m sure you can find yours. What was important for me was the realization that finding my purpose was nothing more than finding the purpose that God had for me. Accomplishing that purpose is my ministry.

Going through this process has been truly miraculous for me. I don’t know how else really to say it. I am discovering that when you are in alignment with what you are supposed to do that the world is a very different place. Everything feels different. Your personal struggles become tools to help others. The trials and tribulations that you experience serve a clear purpose. I know now that all of the hardships and pain that I have known are for a much larger good. It is a wondrous thing to have this feeling of joy. My heart is open now to new experiences in a way that it has never been. I hope that my experience will touch others and that they will know the joy that I have found and that their joy will touch someone else and so on…

One thing that I have discovered is that God will speak to you when it’s time. For example, I discovered my purpose at 6am on January 6, 2006, after I had stayed up all night writing an assessment of different areas of my life, my long term vision for my life and my vision and plan for 2007. That was a Saturday morning. The next day on Sunday we had a sermon where our pastor talked about your purpose, ministry using Job as an example. It was very moving and powerful and confirmed for me that I am on my path.

Lastly, I can see now that all along I had hints about what I should be doing and the dissatisfaction and lack of motivation I experienced when I made decisions that were divergent from my own unique, God given path. I am so thankful that I have now found where I am meant to do.

Read more in My Ministry: Part 2 - Purpose.

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